


glow up

by Dresupi



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Crack, F/M, Fade to Black, Friends to Lovers, Groping, Making Out, Prank War, Snark, Swearing, Table Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 19:06:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18372245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dresupi/pseuds/Dresupi
Summary: She had it coming, and she had it coming hard.Darcy was actually wishing she hadn’t escalated this little slight into the full-on prank war that it had now become.





	glow up

**Author's Note:**

> _****_
> 
> _**Darcy Lewis April Fool’s Crack Challenge 2019** _
> 
> _Day 6: Must Include Glow Sticks_

She had it coming, and she had it coming hard.

Darcy was actually wishing she hadn’t escalated this little slight into the full-on prank war that it had now become. Really, Pietro hadn’t done anything that bad. He’d just figured out how to change FRIDAY’s wakeup call from the soft piano music she’d chosen to  _ ‘All I Do Is Win _ ’ by DJ Khalid.

It hadn’t even scared her. Just  _ jarred _ her awake in the worst kind of way. It would have been easier, and likely more productive, to just forget it had happened. She could have just calmed her ass down, gotten ready for work, and acted like Pietro hadn’t set her heart pounding with his dumb workout mix.

He set her heart pounding just by existing, so she could have just played it cool.

But the speedster’s stupidly pretty face was practically taunting her. And he was  _ so  _ smug. He deserved for someone to hit back at some point, right?

That was why she’d unscrewed the salt shaker lid in the kitchen and made sure Pietro was the one who dumped salt all over his soup.

Which had prompted him to bribe everyone, save Jane, to call her ‘ _ Darby’ _ all day long. He hadn’t even brought it up to Jane, which was funny. Because Jane totally would have called her ‘Darby’, given the correct bribe.

But that was neither here nor there because none of those things was as large scale as her latest endeavor.

The main problem was, Darcy was pretty sure she’d gone one too far this time. And it was all Wanda’s fault. Definitely not hers. Okay, it was a little bit her fault.

Wanda had just let slip that Pietro had glow sticks. Glow sticks that he used when he ran at night. Bright blue and enhanced like he was so they didn’t get too shook up on their Mach 2 runs around the outdoor track. They lasted longer than the normal glow sticks one could get at any discount store. These were special. And Tony made them by the gross. So Pietro had a rather large box of the things in his hall closet.

Darcy had enlisted Wanda’s help and stolen them. Apparently, Pietro had been pranking his sister for their entire lives, so she was only too happy to help Darcy. Wanda had let her into his apartment. Darcy had done the rest.

And the rest consisted of cracking each of the glow sticks before hiding them all over his apartment. All while he was out on a mission because only while His Speediness was out of the country could she be certain of not being caught in the act.

Anyway, she’d done the thing. Hidden one hundred forty-four electric blue glow sticks and tossed the opened box into his trash can so he’d know how many there were… hiding out there.

Then, she’d waited.

He found them approximately forty-five seconds after arriving home. Or he found  _ some  _ of them.  Eight, to be exact. There were still one hundred thirty-six to go.

He’d zipped out to the common area

kitchen with them clenched in his fist. He tossed them down on the tiled countertop in front of her without uttering a single word.

Darcy had picked one up, dangling it from between her fingertips. “You going to a rave later, Piet?”

“I will have revenge,” he vowed. “Soon. But when you’ll least expect it, Lewis.”

“Which is it? Soon, or when I’ll least expect it?”

He’d simply narrowed his eyes and left. The eight blue sticks still on the counter.

And that’s when Darcy realized she was probably in trouble.

 

* * *

 

The revenge actually came six weeks later, after her Halloween slasher film binge with Jane and Thor. It wasn’t anywhere near Halloween, but Jane had been busy in October, so they put it off until the following spring. Anyway, Thor was here to protect them. Supposedly. He didn’t lift a finger to help when said revenge act happened, so Darcy was on the fence.

Needless to say, she was already jumpy from the movies, so Pietro had actually picked a great time to scare the shit out of her. Great time for him, a horrible time for her.

Not that she was actually  _ frightened _ past the initial jump-scare, but that didn’t matter.

In Thor and Jane’s defense, Pietro had been apparently hiding in her kitchenette cupboards since before they’d arrived, so they likely didn’t know that was where he set up spook camp. Or even that he was planning anything at all.

The apartments didn’t have a full kitchen. Just a mini-fridge and a sink area. The sink area had a large-ish cabinet underneath, and that was where he was hiding. Crouched down and just  _ waiting _ to pop out. The bastard.

Darcy went out there to grab a bottle of water and noticed the cabinet was open. So she closed it.

It creaked back open--which was weird, but she just kicked it closed with her foot.

And then it slowly did it again.

Darcy was about mid-sip in her water, which she didn’t bother setting down.  A mistake, she realized later, but hindsight was twenty-twenty, right? She nudged the door closed once more, only for it to fly open and Pietro to speed out and skid to a halt in front of her. “Boo,” he whispered.

“FUCK YOU!” she shrieked, swatting his arms as hard as she could, spilling her water all over both of them in the process. It was cold, but he didn’t seem to care. Didn’t seem to care that she was hitting him either. Her arms probably felt like limp noodles to someone with his enhancement, but that didn’t stop her from exacting justice.

He was laughing and doing very little to dodge her hits and swats. “Fuck you,” she repeated. “Fuck you very much for sneaking into my apartment!”

“You snuck into mine,” he rebuffed, still smiling.

“That was different! I didn’t hide for hours in your cabinets!”

“You hid glow sticks in all my drinking glasses. And in my couch cushions. Zipped up inside. That makes fifty-two I’ve found, counting the stash folded into all my towels.”

“Ninety-two to go….” Darcy drawled, grinning widely.

“No need to look so pleased with yourself, I got you back.” He looked as smug as he possibly could, so she played her only remaining card.

“Fine. Get out.”

His face fell, bottom lip poking out. “But it’s movie night!”

“Only for people who don’t jump-scare me in my own house, asshole!” She pointed to the door. “Get out!”

He rolled his eyes and zipped out. 

“Awww, why didn’t you ask him to stay?” Jane teased from the couch.

“Fuck him, is why!” Darcy got another bottle of water and rejoined them on the sofa.

“Seems as if that’s the way you two do business…” Thor mused, almost muttering under his breath.

“Didn’t see you jumping to my defense there, big guy!” Darcy exclaimed.

He pulled a face. “You were never in any danger. The fast one would no sooner hurt you than he’d slow down for any of the rest of us. He likes you. With good reason. He has excellent taste.”

“He has a funny way of showing it,” Darcy muttered under her breath.

“He’s only escalating the prank war  _ you called _ if I’m not mistaken…” Jane said.

“Enough out of you. You’re supposed to be my friend.”

“I can be your friend  _ and _ tell you when you’re being an ass. And I love you, Darce. You’re my best friend. But you’re kind of being an ass.”

“Pietro’s an ass!” Darcy spat.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. You’re two of a kind,” Jane replied. “But I was the one who had to sit there while you planned to break into his home and hide all his special glow sticks. So like… I don’t want to hear it. You reap what you sow.”

Darcy exhaled. She probably should go apologize to him. Besides, she wasn’t actually mad about him being here. Quite the contrary, actually. She kind of  _ liked _ having him here. Even if she was screaming at and hitting him. She was just mad he’d bested her. And there was no way she could top this prank.

Not that she wasn’t going to try, though. Because Jane was right. Darcy  _ was _ an ass. And she was going to get him back if it was the last thing she did.

She smirked slightly and Jane smiled too, reaching over to pat her shoulder. “You think of a way to get him back yet?”

“Nah, but I will.”

“That’s my girl. Just make sure one of these days, you ask him out. Because you’d have to be blind not to see it the way you guys flirt with one another.”

Darcy reached for the movie. “Time to stop the talkie-talkie, Janey.”

Her friend snorted. 

 

* * *

 

Darcy actually didn’t have time to find Pietro to apologize, because it just so happened that Jane had this humongous breakthrough and they were on a two-day science bender to make sure she didn’t lose her hunch.

Jane didn’t lose it, but she was still there in the lab, going through equations while Tony and Bruce had taken over for Darcy, begging the astrophysicist to sleep while her overworked assistant went home to take her own advice.

She ran into Pietro in the big common room, on the way back to her apartment.

He waved at her, seeming uncharacteristically tentative, probably in case she was still angry.

She gave him a tired grin. “Dude, I’m not mad. And I’m sorry for yelling at you last time.”

Pietro shrugged, rolling the words off his back like water off a duck. “It  _ was _ kind of a dirty trick,” he admitted.

“Yeah, it was. But I’m over it. Promise.” She wasn’t. Not really. But she hadn’t figured out how to get him back yet, but a false sense of security didn’t seem like it would be remiss.

He had a great smile. Especially when he was laughing. He looked down and ran his hand over the back of his neck. “ _ Somehow, _ I don’t believe you.”

She chuckled, “Why do you say that?”

“Because I still haven’t found all the glow sticks. They're everywhere. Just when I think there can’t possibly be any more, there they are.”

“Oh yeah? Well, I can’t even sleep since you scared me, so…” She wasn’t serious in the slightest, and her voice was dripping with sarcasm, but his face fell, his eyebrows knitting as he held out a hand towards her, reaching for and grasping hers.

“Darcy? Truly, I never meant to frighten you… I only did it because… it felt like the next step down that path we were on. Truly… I am sorry. I never meant for it to cause you any negative… Really. I’m sorry.  And call me anytime. I mean it. If you need anything.”

His sudden change of heart was touching, and she felt herself jumping to reassure him that everything was fine. This time, actually meaning it. Except she caught the twinkle in his eye. The curl in his smile. The way his teeth bit down on his bottom lip to keep from bursting into laughter. The slightest touch of sarcasm that made her realized. He was  _ kidding _ .

And she was super tired. So it would be plausible to believe him in her extremely sleepy state. A new prank was formulating as she stood there, her hand still clasped in his. She’d ask him for anything, alright. He was offering, wasn’t he?

She schooled her features, better than he did at any rate, before nodding. “I promise I’m fine, Piet. Just joking around. I got off a two-day science bender with Janey. I’m not losing any sleep because you were in my kitchen. But, I might still take you up on that offer.”

“What offer?”

“To call you? Anytime? If I need  _ anything _ ?”

His blue eyes narrowed infinitesimally, if she hadn’t been staring into them, she wouldn’t have noticed. “Yes, call me. I’ll come to scare off the boogeyman for you.”

“I certainly hope so.”

 

* * *

 

She ended up chickening out. Mostly because she didn’t know what to ask him  _ if _ she called him. The plan was to gradually bother him until he couldn’t think about her without being annoyed. And now her mind was blanking. Badly.

Damn.

She slept after her two-day lab stint, but the sleep didn’t help her in the slightest. There wasn’t any good reason to ask him over. Everything sounded too flimsy. Too fake. Like if she tried anything without a solid idea, he’d see through her ruse in a second.

It was three days later that a good enough idea came to her. In the form of a takeout menu that promised some of the best goddamn orange chicken in the world.

It was even plausible. Tony didn’t let delivery people onto the complex, so if you ordered takeout, you had to ride out in a company golf cart and collect it from the security building at the front gate. It was after seven, and she was in her pajamas because reasons. Reasons pertaining to her laziness, but give her a break, okay?

Plus, this idea would hopefully give her the courage to come up with even more ridiculous tasks to send her very own Hercules on.  She had no Cerberus to tame, but maybe she’d find a spider in her bathroom or something?

_ See? Good ideas come in groups! _

She ordered her food, and quickly texted Pietro, asking him to go pick it up at the front gate for her.

“Gladly,” he texted back.

He brought it up mere seconds after it arrived, leading her to believe things might be just a little shaken from his run, but he was so prompt, she almost felt bad for even asking. True, he’d been joking when he’d offered, but he seemed well and truly serious now, holding out the bag of food at her front door.

Maybe she was going soft.

Or Jane’s words had gotten to her. That their little games were just flirting and wouldn’t the pursuit of  _ that _ be infinitely more fun than this prank war? Also, the reason she couldn’t come up with a way to bother him was maybe more telling than simply a brain fart. She didn’t want him to be annoyed with her. Much the opposite, actually. So maybe that was why she didn’t know what to do. Her heart wasn’t in pranking him, because she wanted to kiss him. And do other non-pranky things with him. Her endgame had shifted.

About one thing, she was certain. She wanted him to stay.

“Piet…” she took the bag and held the door open. She hadn’t ordered nearly enough food to keep him satiated, but maybe he’d be open for a snack? “You can stay to eat if you want…”

His eyebrows went up. “I can?”

“... Yeah?” 

“Okay… I’d love to stay, but let me cook you something…” He took the bag from her hand and zipped it over to the dining table. “Don’t eat that. It’s got more salt and hot sauce than you were expecting.” He smirked and reached into the bag, pulling out her little container of egg rolls. Which was faintly glowing blue. “And some rapidly fading glowsticks I found in my dishwasher.”

“You absolute douche!” she exclaimed, reaching for him and grasping a handful of his shirt.

She froze, gazing down at the blue fabric in her hand, he did too, and their eyes met on the way back up. He placed the container on the table beside the bag, licking his lips, his eyes boring holes into hers. Oh, she’d been played.

Not by Pietro, but by her very own self.

Yeah, she’d been aware of the attraction, but this? This was her real goal all along. Her endgame hadn’t shifted at all. This had been it all along.

“This had the opposite effect…” she murmured, in response to the entirety of the prank war, but he misunderstood, thinking more in the here and now

“Are you sure about that?” Pietro countered, glancing down at her hand. “Feels like something very definite.”

She shook her head. “No. I’m not sure.” Her arms wound around his shoulders and tugged him down. He went more than willingly and when his lips touched hers, she whimpered, his arms slipping tightly around her waist, holding her close.

The kiss felt electric. Like it shot through her entire body. Like she had nerves in her fingertips and toes connected to where his lips were touching hers. “I’ve been wanting to do that for so long,” he admitted, smiling when she tugged him back to her little kitchen table. He swept the food onto the floor, laying her across it and reaching for his back pocket to empty it of his phone, his keys, his wallet.

“Shit…” he cursed under his breath. “I forgot condoms…” He zipped off before she could blink.

“Oh, wait…” she began. “I have some…”

But he was already gone, so she just huffed out a sigh, sitting up on the table before sprinting back to the bathroom to grab her box from the drawer.

When she returned, he was standing there, dropping a handful of glow sticks on the table. “Really? Lewis? With my condoms?”

She shrugged. “I put all of those in the next drawer down, I didn’t steal them.”

“I know. I found them. He dropped a few from his other hand. “And you have some too? Looks like we’ll be good to go until tomorrow at least.” He grinned widely, the cocky bastard.

“What are you so happy about?” she asked, obviously teasing him.

“You,” he replied as if it were obvious. “We’re about to do  _ this _ . Also, you looked for my condoms, so you’ve been thinking about this for longer than just tonight.”

She rolled her eyes. “Wasn’t much looking involved, you had them practically out in the open. So like… a bit off topic, but have you found them all?” She gestured to the glow sticks.

“Only up to one hundred forty…  there aren’t going to be any in your bra, are there?” His tone was teasing, just the right kind as his gaze dipped down to her chest and back up again.

“Why don’t you check and see?”

“I’ll enjoy looking, but if I find any… “ He trailed off and licked his lips, the ‘warning’ perfectly clear.

It was almost disappointing that she didn’t have any glow sticks stashed in there.

Pietro moved in, crowding her back so far she had to hop back up on the table. She wrapped her legs around his hips, resting her left leg in the dip of his lower back. On the shelf his ass made. One hand rucked up the hem of her shirt, warm fingers searching.

_ Almost _ being the operative word.

**Author's Note:**

> xoxo, Thanks for reading!


End file.
